WESTCHESTER COUNTY —Local Central Region athletes found gold over the weekend as the Governor Hugh L. Carey Empire State Games wound down in Westchester County this weekend.
Kirsten Hammond of Marathon took top honors in Open Women’s Trap-Second 100 Targets with a score of 124+2, winning on the fifth-extra target of a shoot-off. Hammond and Denise Volker each hit the first target in the shoot-off. Both missed on the second, third and fourth targets. After Volker missed on the fifth, Hammond calmly hit her fifth target for the gold medal.
Hammond teamed with Aaron Shippey of Marathon and Moravia’s Lane Hopkins to earn the bronze medal in the Team Trap Event after a score of 270/450 Saturday.
SUNY Cortland assistant track and field coach Tim Walker scored a gold medal by winning the Open Men’s 1,500-meter run Saturday.
Walker, who coaches the middle distance and distance runners in track and cross country, posted a winning time of 4:04.82 to win by more than one second. The former Penn State collegiate standout was nipped by a smaller time difference in the 800m final for the bronze medal three hours earlier after running 1:54.01.

BLODGETT MILLS — One week after being disqualified, Ben Bushaw earned redemption on Saturday night, capturing his fourth win of the season at Skyline Raceway.
Bushaw held off another local favorite, Jim Howard, for the victory in the 25-lap Sportsman Modified feature.
Tim Howell grabbed the lead at the drop of the green flag with Bushaw charging from his sixth starting position to second. Bushaw made the winning pass on a lap six restart as he was able to wrest the lead from Howell, who began to fade with a deflating right rear tire.
Howard slipped into the second position aboard the Ray Taylor-owned No. 90 and began to work on the rear of Bushaw for the top spot as the two fan favorites would see plenty of each other the rest of the way.
Over the second half of the event, Bushaw was able to keep his Seven Valleys Trucking-sponsored Bicknell machine at the head of the field with Howard trailing. At the checkered flag, Bushaw led by a couple of car lengths over Howard. Defending track champion Jim LaRock finished third with Tom Collins Jr. fourth. Southern Tier Late Model standout Dave Zona made a rare appearance aboard the Rod Hunsinger No. 00 and earned a top five finish in his season debut at Skyline.
In the 20-lap IMCA Modified feature, Sean Lias continued his winning ways as he turned in another impressive performance to pick up the win. Lias drove past Pete Neff on the fourth lap to take over the top spot and led the rest of the way.
It was not an easy win for Lias, however, as Mark Griffin advanced to second and was able to keep the pressure on Lias over the second half of the race. Lias was up to the challenge as he never opened the door for Griffin and drove on for the win with Griffin a close second. Neff finished third with Johnny Hill fourth and Brian Rhodes rounding out the top five.
Clayton Ingrahm’s hot streak continued in the 20-lap Pure Stock feature as Ingrahm drove to his third consecutive feature win and seventh of the 2007 campaign; Chad Howard drove to his first win of the 2007 season in the 15-lap Junkyard Dogs feature while Ken Keough drove to his third win of the season in the 12lap Junkyard Pups feature.CLARK RUNS 12th: Cortland native Jeremy Clark, who now lives in Concord, North Carolina, returned Upstate New York and posted a 12th-place finish in the Edge Hotel 150 NASCAR Busch East Series race at Adirondack International Speedway in Beaver Falls.
Clark started 24th in the 26-car field as the field was set by points after qualifying was rained out Friday. Clark was the last car on the lead lap when the checkered flag flew for race winner Joey Logano, who currently leads the Busch East Series and Sunoco Race Fuels Rookie of the Year standings after his fourth win of the season.
Logano is a developmental driver for Joe Gibbs Racing.CONOVER CONTENDS: Scott Conover who has come close in many races to picking up a win in 2007 driving his No. 26 UMP Pro Stock, he finally erased all that frustration picking up a hard fought 20-lap win Saturday night at Fulton Speedway.
For the Freeville driver, it was his first ever win in the class. Second was Jack Terrell, followed by invader Frank Guererri, Dale Guernsey and Dick Parkhurst.
Cortland’s Dale Planck finished fourth in the DIRTcar Modifieds 35-lap main event at Fulton. Jimmy Phelps was the winner in that race, chased across the finish line by Roy Bresnahan in second and Alan Johnson in third.
At Utica-Rome Speedway last night, Bobby Varin raced off with the top spot in the 30-lap Modifieds featured event. Stewart Friesen was second and Pat Ward third.